News

Crime across Mitchell soars under Labor

Crime rates in the Mitchell Shire have soared by a staggering 25.95 per cent under Labor, new crime statistics show.

Member for Euroa and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Steph Ryan today called for additional police resources to help address the dramatic increase in local crime.

"People have a right to feel safe in their community. It is very difficult for our local police to protect the community when the government is not supporting them," Ms Ryan said.

"We have thousands of people moving into the southern end of the shire each year but the government is not recruiting additional police to deal with the increase in population."

"The increase in the crime rate across Victoria by 8.1 per cent since Labor was elected is bad enough, but the figures in Mitchell are really worrying.

"In the Mitchell Shire area last year there was a total of 4164 offences, up from 3306 the previous year.

"That included two charges for homicide and related offences, 251 cases of assault and 67 sexual offences. There were also 532 cases of theft and 13 charges for drug dealing or trafficking."

Ms Ryan said the figures revealed a worrying trend about the Andrews Labor Government’s lack of commitment to law enforcement in Victoria.

“Daniel Andrews has said a lot of nice words about police resourcing in the last week but the reality is, his rhetoric just doesn't match the facts," Ms Ryan said.

"Labor has virtually halted the recruitment of additional police across Victoria and residents of the Mitchell Shire are suffering as a result.

"Labor funded just 15 additional police officers in last year’s budget, all of whom were deployed to the Bellarine Peninsula.

“In comparison, the Coalition recruited 1900 additional police officers as well as protective services officers during the four years we were in government.

Shadow Minister for Police Edward O'Donahue said Victoria was now seeing crimes like drive-by shootings, car-jackings and home invasions that only a few years ago were nothing more than news reports from overseas or scenes from a Hollywood movie.

"These crimes are unacceptable and should never be tolerated," Mr O'Donohue said.